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Perfect Writer:1.00:CDP OEM/Lesson/WONDER.MSS
Text file about typewriters and word processors. File content That Wonderful Writing Machine The first practical typewriter appeared on the market in 1874, a product of the American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes. Called the 'Remington' after its manufacturer, E. Remington and Sons of Ilion, New York, gunsmiths, it possessed many features that have remained standard on typewriters for over a century, including: levered keys, the use of an inked ribbon, the positions of the characters on the keyboard, and a rotating cylinder which controlled line spacing, carriage return, and placement of characters. The Remington Model 2, which appeared in 1878, featured a 'shift key' which made possible printing both upper and lowercase letters. For many years the shift key Remington 2 competed with another popular model which featured a 'double' keyboard, containing a separate key for every character, whether upper or lowercase. Eventually a scheme of typewriter operation called 'touch typing', which required a compact keyboard of the kind offered by the Remington, determined that it and like models would dominate the market. Early typing machines did not allow the operator to view what was being typed, the keys striking the paper at a point on the underside of the platten. In 1883 the first 'visible-writing' typewriter appeared. In these machines the keys were situated such that they struck the top of the cylinder. Although an improvement, this was still an awkward configuration and in 1990 an American inventor named John N. Williams finally produced a typewriter in which the keys struck the front of the cylinder. From these early beginnings to well past the middle of the 20th century, the standard typewriter underwent few significant changes. It was, of course, made quieter and more fashionably streamlined; and certain models appeared that were more compact than others. One notable advance came in 1920 when an inventor named John Smathers produced an electric typewriter, and again, in 1961 when a company called IBM introduced a model on which the typed characters were held not on individual keybars, but on a spherical ball, which was interchangeable and which allowed the operator for the first time to select among a variety of typefaces. In the late 1970's an invention appeared that for the first time in a century presented a serious challenge to the typewriter as the most widely used, manually-operated printing device. This was known as a 'word processor', an ingenious computer program for use upon small microcomputers, which were at this time just beginning to become affordable (and therefore available) to the general public. The first word processors were, for the most part, clumsy, inefficient, awkward, hard-to-use devices, with complicated command structures that frequently baffled and frustrated their users. Nevertheless they were accepted (even embraced) by those practical persons who recognized their promise and the advance they represented over the typewriter. In the early 1980's came the first great breakthrough in the evolution of word processors, and which for the first time spelled the doom of the typewriter as a practical means of producing typewritten documents. This was `Perfect Writer', a word processor that possessed a variety of remarkable and distinguishing features. Among these was its `portability'--i.e. an amazing ability to function on virtually any microcomputer available; its power (it could edit long documents with ease--even multiple documents simultaneously); its 'integration' (it worked in tandem with a variety of companion programs); but above all, its ease of use and uncomplicated command structure. Throughout the 1980's Perfect Writer dominated the market in word processing, consistently outperforming other word processors, presenting innovations that astounded competitors as much as they delighted users. In all, by the early 1990's advanced versions of Perfect Writer had been accepted as the standard word processing device throughout the world. The product became so widely known and respected for its quality, ease of use, and reliability, as to become regarded as the `generic' device in the field of word processing. In all of this the lowly typewriter, which had served mankind so loyally for so long, passed quickly into oblivion. Within a few short years, even the most sophisticated electric typewriters, possessing such gadgetry as line memory, automatic erasing keys, and switchable keyfonts, became of value only as collector's items. Many found their way into museums, or into the hands of private collectors. By the beginning of the 21st century the only persons reportedly still using a typewriter to produce typed, printed copy were a few primitive tribesmen living in the remote, inaccessible jungles of New Guinea. That 'Wonderful Writing Machine' had gone the way of Rock n' Roll music, gasoline powered cars, and paper money! �